So i finally got around to playing the first six scenarios of the 1st spanish league. I lost every game but one. Would have beatten Yig in the second scenario but came up one die roll short. Losing sucks but playing is fun and I don't mind so much. What kills me is those rumor cards. I'll be on a roll, everything going right, then bam, rumor card cames along and the tide of the game changes. And it always comes when I got 3 or 4 sealed gates. The game can be hard enough as it is but whoever came up with the rumor cards must of had a bad childhood or something.

I can see your troubles with rumors, but remember, not all rumor cards need to be passed. Specifically, if you have already 4 seals on the board, maybe it's better let the rumor go, and focus on remaining seals. Clearly, it strongly depends on how many investigators you play with, but if you run a 4-invstigator party, putting the last two seals down is kinda easy.

Anyway, if you're just beginning... first of all, check whether you follow literally the rules. Most of us kept on doing mistakes during their first games, and sometimes these mistakes can condition the result of the game. If everything's correct, remember to focus on gates, spare your clues for sealing (do not add them to skill check, unless it's a check of the greatest importance - read: if you fail, you're devoured or you lose all your clues or something similar), and remember there are 4 high frequency location in the base game: Independence Square, Unvisited Isle, Witch House and Woods. As soon as you start sealing them, you cannot lose a single game with vanilla AH. Adding expansions enters difficulty, but base game cannot be lost. Eleven unstable locations means eleven doomers, most of the AO has a doom track of 12 or plus. So, no way.

As for the League per se... they were all kinda easy, especially because most of the time you play only with the base board (Scenario 5 - IIRC, the one with monster corpses returning to life - is technically an auto-win); some of them are annoying (the Atlach Scenario. It's not difficult, but it's really boring, the game lasts for too long. You need to be well trained to work as a group, seal three minor locations, spread your characters and synchronize the last three seals.

The most important thing, anyway, is that you had fun by playing them :-) and if you want to share with us the strategy, or the difficulties you met, we can discuss them together :-) (consider that I won the French League hosting those Scenarios :-))

See it never occured to me about the high frequency gate locations. I am going to start using that. As far as mistakes. Yeah I make alot of them. I play with 4 investigators, it is a lot to keep up with, but I figure I learn quicker. Used to be I was forgetting to do things all the time but slowly I am starting to make few and fewer mistakes. I am down to about 2-3 mistakes per game now. Sometimes though it will be that one that will get you.

As for the rumor cards go. Used to be I put everything on hold and tried to complete the card. Now I am starting to learn to just let it go. Especially it is one like all the allies die or something like that. What gets me though is the great ritual and the terrible experiment. The one where you have to fight 5 monsters at the university streets and if you dont then the terror level increases and the board ends up being overrun. Maybe I could avoid all this if I did not put all the monsters from all expansions into one cup and use that cup everytime I play. But I like variety.

I tend to forget about the winning by closing so many gates rule. It is either seal the 6 or fight the AO. As it so happens I tend to but all my eggs in one basket so to speak and always try for the 6 gates AO be damned. I know it is wrong and should have my investigators equipped properly for battle against the AO but I have not progressed enough to play that way yet cause I am still trying to keep up with the rules. Like yesterday when I played the 2nd scenario and had to fight Yig. I should have beat him i came one die roll short. Thing is I forgot his doom track is shorter than most and none of my investigators were epuipped right. Two of them died right at the start cause they were cursed and had forgot to roll to get rid of the curses about 20 minutes before I fought him. So for my penalty because I forgot those two investigators were automaticly devoured.

It is just little things like that but like I said I before I got all the games at once and have had them maybe a month now. Should have mastered one before I started another but like a kid at a candy store I was so impressed with the games and just could not help myself. Can anyone really blame me? Hell, I am hungry for more games. I grab every fan scenario I can get and if FFG came out with a new AH product today I would find some way of having it by the end of the week and be playing it the same day.

Yeah, there are 4 high frequency locations, and three low frequency (Science Building, Historical Society, Hibb's Roadhouse). This is very important to know, in order to adopt the proper tactics to win the game. If I have to play an Atlach game, I'll try to seal low and medium frequency locations, and let the high frequency open: a monster surge is by far better than a bursted seal. Not to mention that you can cash trophies for clues. Same stuff for an Innsmouth (and especially a Dagon) game: to lower the risk of Mythos bouncing on seals and raising the DOR, it's better these locations remain unsealed in the first part of the game. It's the opposite if Innsmouth board is not in play.

Errors and mistakes: it's good you spot them out. My suggestion is reading again (and again and again) the rules. There is a lot of stuff that slips from our mind, especially at the beginning (but anyway, I've been playing AH for five years now, and I still read the rules every now and then, finding this extremely helpful).

Rumors. Yeah, Southside Strangler Strikes is not that important to pass (even if it's not that difficult to pass). The main point is: a Rumor can be used as shelter for other Rumors. A game should last 15-16 turns, depending on the size of your party. Hence it's important to know how to keep under control the Rumor.

Closing victories are not that easy to accomplish. They require some game under the belt, I suppose. Or, at least, this happened in my experience: I noticed that at the beginning it was all about sealing or fight, now I can score closing victories a 40% of the times.

It's great your enthusiasm in the game :-) and I cannot but be with you on this :-) But yeah, sometimes playing things at a slower pace can be better for learning.

If you would like to add variety and still learning the game from the basics to the highest peaks of strategy, I'd suggest you to try the series of Scenarios designed by Tibs: they are *great*, both under a "teaching new players" and "theme related fun" point of views. It's the best way to start playing Arkham

I haved printed Tibs scenarios just have not played them yet. Another problem I have is the investigators I choose. I throw all investigators into a plie, close my eyes, and pick four. Not the best way to play but i am figuring things out. Just figured out last night that if you park Kate at a location like the woods a gate can not open there. That is pretty useful while someone like Jenny just gains money. she is good for buying items for people but when the terror level goes up quick and the shops close she was no use to me. I know some investigators are much better than other but I have not even begun to scratch the surface on knowing who to choose and who to lose.

It can also be said that I do not use spells enough. In fact, my first few games I did not even use one spell. I relied all on my weapons. I am using spells more and more now but some of the spells with the basic set still confuse me, or seem more trouble than they are worth. Like the voice of ra or mist of whatever. I get those all the time but never have used one yet. I think one of the problems is that my investigators are always low on sanity for some reason or another and most tend to be low on money as well.

I never use the bank loan as well. I just forget about it. Never used the epic battle cards either. Which what is the opinion on those? Should I use them or do they just make things harder, they look fun though.

Same with the ancient ones. I have only played against maybe a third of them. I know ones like Yig and Ithica tend to be easier while to me Hastur and Cthulhu tend to be harder. Have not played much against the AO's from the expansion, which I am chomping at the bit to do because some look really off the wall. When I do play the expansions I tend to always use the herald becuase it is more rules to keep up with and I figure I'll learn quicker. I know some say the heralds are easy but to me they make the game harder.

Never have used any of the guardians or institutions yet. They look interesting but that is one area I want to wait until I master the game to where I am only making one mistake a game. It seems that they would be a help wish there were more of them. The institutions look like they are more trouble than they are worth.

Also have to admit I have ignore the whole gate burst thing. I am having a hard enough time winning as it is with those things coming up. I know it is cheating and I play it straight most of the time but i bend the rules when it comes to those. I read somewhere that clue tokens are not supposed to be traded but I ignore that rule as well. I figure if two people are talking at the same location they could tell eachother about some clues they found out. Now if I ever get to a point where I am winning 90% of the time I will follow the rules on those things.

Another thing is that if an investigator gets devoured in the middle of the game I will not replace him but still play as if I had 4. That has happened to me several times. I just play like it is up to these 4 to save the world with no backup. More dramatic that way to me.

woodsdarkman said:

Choosing randomly from two-to-three investigators works for us. Enough choice not to be forced into playing a naff investigator, not enough to grab Lily, Patrice, Mandy and Joe every time.

woodsdarkman said:

Spells are underpowered. A good combat spell can make a surrogate for a magic weapon, but mostly you'd prefer to have the weapon. Occasionally you can twist spells to your purposes though and accomplish goals which might not have been possible otherwise, but that's often situational. See the Eye of Amara Institution in the Institutions section of this forum for an organisation which makes Spells a little more worthwhile.

woodsdarkman said:

Yes to the Epic Battle. Bank Loan - it depends, if you're 4 seals down and need a little chump change for the train or a cheap item in the store, it can be worthwhile. Camping the Newspaper is often as effective.

woodsdarkman said:

Heralds should make the game harder. If you're worried about the difficulty level, don't add them in and consider adding an Institution and/or a Guardian instead. Ancient Ones often force you to play different styles.

woodsdarkman said:

They're no more difficult than a Herald. With institutions you may want to get by with their minor abilities and ignore optional extras like spending clues to put agents in streets or seting up a Research Lab.

woodsdarkman said:

Allwoing the trading of clues can majorly affect your game. Under the rules, you need 5 (at least) clues to dive into an Other World, pop out the other side and seal it, then you heal and go clue hunting again, possibly chucking your gate at the SB for clues or at Mas for an Ally that gives clues. Under the "trade clues" regime one player can gate dive and the other can grab the clues for them to go gate-diving almost straight away.

woodsdarkman said:

More dramatic, but more difficult. If you play Persoanl Stories you'll learn that some investigators are destined to die.

Thanks Jake. I see what you are talking about. I am going to start using the personal stories and the epic battle cards from now on. I still am going to let my players trade clues though as long as they are at the same location. It just makes sense to me, I mean you can trade everything else. I am going to start to even things out a little bit. Every time I use a herald (which I tend to do) I am also going to use a guardian or an institition. I needed to start tinkering with them anyways.

I saw those new AO sheets for Hastur and Cthuhlu. Should I print those out and use them instead cause they seem a little easier, escpecially Hastur. That whole 8 tokens to seal a gate is a real pain?

woodsdarkman said:

This is something you should really avoid to do. It changes drastically the game balance: in this way, you can have two characters sealing all the time, while others keep on collecting clues to pass to the sealers. Really, it's game breaking. Maybe not now that you're still a beginner, but, as soon as you have a little experience of the game... yeah.

I agree 100% with Julia. You'll get much more satisfaction winning when you do it right, not with an easy handicap.

I see what you guys are saying, I really do. Now when I am winning a majority of my games then I will most likely stop trading clue tokens, and start using gate burst. For now while I am winning one out of every 5 games I still will do it. Right now it just simplifies things for me. Like last night I was playing against Hastur and I sealed three gates before realizing it takes 8 tokens to seal a gate not 5 I was doing. My only mistake but a big one. I forfitted the game because of that.

woodsdarkman said:

Okay... There are a few errors here... First of all, bank loan can be very useful if you deliberately default on it (i.e. take out a loan, pass away all your items and money to another investigator, then just wander around without items until you fail your roll). It's a fast way to make easy money (unless you get very unlucky and have to wait a bit to default, still, you usually make a lot of cash fast this way if you want to, it's probably the fastest mechanism for making money in the game, getting retainers are also good, but they're slower, and less reliable to obtain).

Spells aren't things I normally shop for (money's put to better use at the unique item store); however, something like Mist of R'lyeh is *excellent* since it means that you can basically send in a high lore investigator to other worlds without weapons but it will be okay because you'll be able to dodge monsters whether on the street or in Other Worlds.

Aaaand, finally, do not park Kate. Do not park investigators. The opportunity costs of doing this is huge. Sure, you're potentially stopping a gate from opening, but you are also doing nothing with your investigators. Unless you're on five seals and have someone else in the other world trying to get out and finish the game for you, you do not want to do this. Spending time is a huge issue in this game. You need to spend it wisely. Think about all the other things she could be doing with that time. I will say this though. She's useful for picking up clues in high frequency locations (since if a gate does open while she's there, it'll be blocked). But, yeah, again, don't park her. The only investigator I *ever* park to block an effect (and even still, very rarely), is Wendy, for temporarily plugging up monster movement. Usually to prevent something from going into a vortex if it's really important and I can't get anyone else there in time.

I randomly select investigators also :') it's not a bad way to play, although you might want to handicap the game a bit more in your favor at the beginning (it's a matter of personal taste, I didn't, but also, it was much easier then without any expansions).